Some of you may recall that last year we spent a lovely few days ski-ing in Queenstown. We had hoped that this wouldn't be a one off for 2013 and even planned a weekend at 'the Mountain' (Mount Ruapehu on the North Island) with Hannah and Jody for my birthday weekend last year hoping for some powder, but to no avail due to weather conditions. Time has flown by and ski season is upon us again. Given Hannah and Jody were still ski-ing virgins we weren't going to leave anything to chance this year. Flights and bach booked in Queenstown for a long weekend, the weekend before we popped up to Snow Planet (an indoor snow dome near Auckland) so Matt and I could refresh our skills and Hannah and Jody could learn the ropes. No problem there as both picked up the basics pretty quick, although Jody may have been a little over ambitious going up to the top quite so soon...
Needless to say we were all super excited when Friday morning 5.15am came around and Hannah and Jody picked us up to head to the airport.
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| EXCITED! |
On arrival in Queenstown we were super efficient in picking up the hire car, collecting our pre booked ski equipment and doing a mega supermarket shop. Just time to pop to our bach before heading to the slopes.
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| The view from our bach |
The place was amazing! A bit out of town, stunning views, a wood burning stove and comfy beds with electric blankets. Hannah and I wondered if we could just hang out there with books for the weekend!
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| Happy Matt itching to get to the slopes |
The boys of course had other ideas so warm clothing thrown on and we were off to Coronet Peak for an afternoon on-piste. I stuck with Hannah and Jody on the beginner slopes whilst Matt headed off to the top.
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| The Bailey-Wells duo learning the ropes |
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| From the top |
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| Very happy Matt |
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| Someone else enjoying the views |
A successful afternoon over (with a couple of falls thrown in for good measure) and we popped into town for a swift one at Atlas before heading back for the first curry of the weekend, a couple more beers and an early night.
Next morning and we were up and off for the slightly hair raising drive up to the Remarkables ski field.
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| Getting ready for a fun packed day on the slopes |
The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and later on that day Matt and I lured Jody up onto the chair lift for a bit of a longer run. Might have been a bit premature again but we did all get to the bottom in one piece!
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| Assorted ski bunnies |
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| Post chair lift fun, pre ski-ing to the bottom. Smiles all round! |
Feeling a bit more confident getting off the lifts this year meant I could actually enjoy the experience and the view - I had pretty good company too!
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| Loving life |
A very full day complete, we headed straight back to the bach for drinks and curry number 2.
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| Enjoying the early evening sun at the back of our bach |
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Epic poppadoms pre an even more
epic curry courtesy of Hannah and Jody |
Getting into the swing of things we were straight onto the slopes for day 3 with Hannah and Jody taking a lesson in the morning to hone their skills, me going up and down on the chair lift countless times coming down quicker (and more controlled!) as the day progressed. And Matt... Well Matt really did get carried away covering nearly all of the field's runs including the big scary black run which looked like a sheer drop to the viewer (and apparently was even more terrifying from the top!)
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View from the top - luckily there
was an easier way down than Matt's black run |
We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the last day and were pretty sad to say goodbye to our ski equipment that evening. Especially Jody - who had become Judy to us for the duration of the trip due to a minor mis-spelling of his name
We saved the proper apres ski for the last night with plenty of beers and a visit to the world famous Fergburger to satiate our huge appetities!
A bit more silliness (there was a lot worse than this photo!) in town and then back to the bach for a bit more before a very late last night.
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| Matt and his new mate |
What a few days. We've definitely caught the ski-ing bug!
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